As I reported last week, the guest bath remodel/makeover is underway. After very little discussion with The Mister (he worked most of the weekend) I have decided to move forward with the beige wall paint, white trim and darker cabinets. I am considering antiquing them first to see if I like it. If not, then I will move on to full coverage with gel stain. I believe a nice, deep stained look to the painted cabinets can go a long way in a newly brightened bath. We will just have to see. Right now the wallpaper paste removal is still a work in progress. More on this project later.

I have been sidetracked in my remodel planning process since last Thursday. That is when we found out our new little one will be a girl. Yeah for a swing with a different bat this time around! Yikes, for all the newness and challenges we face. All in all we are super excited. But, of course that brings us full circle to a grand bedroom remodel. I knew the spare bedroom had to move from lavender and flowers to something a bit more in tune with a very young boy, but I still was not sure much needed to change in our nursery. Now it looks like we need a complete overhaul!

Actually, I am thinking of some subtle changes in the nursery, as well as the spare room. Even with the small things that need to switch up, I am utterly exhausted just thinking about all that has to happen between now and the due date. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! Again, my sidetracked mind can only seem to focus on the next fun project that lies in wait. I have been searching Pinterest for inspiration, but I think I have a pretty good idea of how these makeovers will go down. One thing is for sure, the Little Guy’s bedroom will soon house a lot more of his toys, as well as, his pint-sized table and chairs set from IKEA. Which, by the way, is looking really rough now that it has even more scars from the Crayola battles. Sir Google brought up some neat images of how other people transformed their IKEA table and chair sets, so I think before popping our sad set into the new space I will give it a quick makeover too.

A little too sweet for my guy, but in the realm of possibilities. With all the marks on top I’m afraid there may be bleed through if I just paint. The idea of actually covering the top with paper or fabric seems like a better bet.

This last one is really fun and the before shots look quite similar to our set. The only thing is my Little Man would rip every last bit of this masking tape right off in one sitting.

There are plenty of ideas out there, I just have to pick or come up with one. And, soon! We have walls to paint, bookshelves to find, beds to upholster, pillows to make, lighting, window treatments. As usual, I am biting off waaaaayyyy more than I can chew!

Sometimes I really envy those folks who move into a brand new home with simple builder’s beige walls. Picking paint colors is not my forte. I know what I want, but never seem to be able to find that just right shade. The previous owner’s of our home did their best to correct some really big wall horrors, like the over the top, extra large vine patterned wall paper lining the master bedroom all the way up to the vaulted ceiling. I remember literally feeling dizzy as I stepped into that space. They were smart enough to get that removed after feedback from the realtor. We can tell they also tried to pick some more up to date colors for a couple of the rooms too, like the light aqua blue for one bedroom, simple white for another and a citrus green for the family room. I say you can tell they tried to make some things better because the paint jobs look like as though they were done in a hurry, and include things like dry roller marks and picture hooks painted to the walls. If I could have had one wish before moving in, it would have been to see all the wallpaper throughout the house come down. But, I don’t know anyone crazy enough to take that on while selling a house, if they don’t have to.

So, here we are a little over two years later and I am finally getting around to painting the formal living room. If you have stopped by before, you have probably seen pictures of it and the dark taupe walls courtesy of the previous owners.

We left the walls alone until now because out of every room in the house they were in the category of least offensive. They only real issue with the wall color in there is that it tends toward the purpley-taupe range rather than just brown taupe. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes you would walk by and the lighting in there would cast a purple glow, which is definitely not the look we are going for…any where in our home. Speaking of lighting, that is the second issue with the space. While it does have two large windows to the front yard, it really only gets filtered light throughout the day. One of the nice things about living in a very wooded lot is the privacy and shade provided by all the big trees, but it all but eliminates “bright and airy” as a descriptor for parts of our interior. Thus the need for a change in wall color.

I would also like to mention the only other obstacle with this paint job, the large openings into the room on either end. While these large doorways make for nice flow from the front door to the formal spaces, they leave us no choice but to do some serious color coordinating. I have had it in my mind from the beginning that the color for this room would be a shade of very pale blue gray. I mean, so pale it almost looks white. My fear has been that it will feel awkwardly bright next to the dark colors of the dining room and the foyer, which is now a shade of deep green-gray. So, I opted for a little more color with my first paint choice and went with Rising Tide from Valspar, available through Lowe’s. The little swatch looked perfect next to the dining room and foyer colors, but once on the wall it was a whole different story. This morning I awoke to baby blue walls. Sickening baby blue walls. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like pale blue, but this is so wrong for the space it just makes me queasy.

Before heading out for errands this morning I convinced myself that one of the other swatches, Azure Snow from Valspar at Lowe’s, would do the trick. Then I started looking at more swatches in the store and got all confused again. I ended up bringing home Azure Snow and another Valspar color, Bayside, in the small tester paint pots to actually try on the walls first. It’s hard to see with the lack of lighting in the space, but here are the two swatches in contrast with the baby blue walls:

(The view toward the dining room)

(The main wall, across from the windows)

(The window wall)

After staring at these for a while I decided it was time to do what I did in the dining room, mix my own. So, using the Valspar, French Gray tester pot and some leftover white wall paint I was able to add more confusion in the decision making process with a couple more shades.

(The last two squares are the new shades)

Even with the swatch squares painted out on three walls of the room, I still wasn’t really feeling the love for any one of the colors. Each area I painted has a different look due to the lighting and I’m starting to think I need a different shade for each wall.?? As you can see from the pictures it’s so dark in the space that I have to be really careful to get this right so it doesn’t end up feeling like a cave in there. However, I will say that just bringing the color from dark taupe to light blue has made such a difference in the feeling of the room. Who knows? If I can get this color choice right I might be able to add “light and airy” to the description of our formal living room after all.

At this point, I am leaning toward the lightest of the four squares, which is one of the self-mixed colors. It is nearly the same shade as the original color I chose for the space, but with more gray instead of bright blue. What do you guys think? Opinions, anyone? How do you guys pick paint colors? If there is a formula out there I could really use it right about now!

This is a project that has been in progress since we moved to Richmond, VA back in July 2009. I say it has been in the works for that long because I actually painted the walls just days before our new washer and dryer arrived. Then, shortly after, I installed the shelves and hanging bars. A few days later I cleaned and papered the shelves in the bank of cupboards opposite the washing area. Whew! Remembering what it took to make all of that happen while about 8 months pregnant makes me dizzy. But, I was determined to have a decent laundry area since I new heaps of it was in my very near future. Plus, this is what we were working with on move-in day.

(The right side of the galley laundry area as you enter from the garage door.)

(Here is a shot looking back toward the garage door from where the washing machine now sits.)

(Looking back into the galley laundry area from the back hallway to the family room and opposite the garage door.)

(The left side of the room from the garage entry with a sunny window to the back yard.)

(The scene just below the window on the back wall. Lots of dings and dirt to clean and cover with paint before the new machines arrive.)

(One last shot of the dirty mayhem.)

It was all white, white and white with lots of dirt and grime mixed in. Since settling in I have dreamt of the many ways I could remake the space for much better flow, but because that requires knocking down a wall, adding another and some plumbing and electrical work, I don’t see it happening any time soon. Oh well. In the meantime I decided to try to cutify (yes, I made that up) this area to make my time there a little less sad and stressed. Sad, because it was a drab space and stressed because it’s a galley with the back entry from our dirty old garage. So, I am constantly combating dirt and gunk in the same place I am trying to clean our clothing- yuck! The first step was to paint the walls. To save money I just mixed the white and brown paint I had used in the nursery to create a nice taupe. Then I used some of the leftover glossy white paint from that same project to give the grimy cream colored trim a nice new, bright color. The window and doors got the glossy white treatment, but the baseboards were coated in the same dark chocolate brown as the nursery. The floor in this room is a dull creamy white linoleum with a simple square tile design. The “grout” lines appear to be a mauve color, but it could just be that they have faded over time. Either way, the light floor shows dirt before you can even walk across it and the mauve wasn’t doing anything for us. So, I bought some inexpensive chocolate brown rag rugs from Target to cover this eyesore. They are easy to shake out and then they can be tossed into the washer and dryer to really get the dirt out. I also moved our cream colored shag door mat from the front entryway into this space, not only because I bought a new rug for the entry (as seen here), but because we really needed another spot to wipe our shoes before coming any further into the house. This was all stage one in the laundry room makeover and we lived with just these changes until earlier this year.

Several months ago I decided to use some of my vintage fabrics and finds to make the space a little more inviting. First, I attacked the big, VERY useful, but super ugly washtub. I wanted to skirt it and had this idea that I could just whip up something tiered and slightly ruffled, slap it on and be done. And, the project pretty much went just like that. ;o)

I scrounged up some complimentary fabrics and with a little measuring stitched them together. Then I added some heavy-duty hook and loop tape (which I found out they make in set lengths specifically for skirting tables and such!) to the tub, and then the top band of the skirt. Done! Now, the tub looks a bit nicer and I can hide a bin of cleaning supplies out of sight (and out of the way from the floor of the adjacent closet-yeah!).

Next, I decided to use a vintage laundry bag with neat hand embroidery to create a café curtain for the really sunny window. I actually enjoy how sunny this space usually is, but sometimes when I am working in there it’s blinding. As with most of the rooms in our house, we still employ the lovely accordion-style, builder’s blinds to keep the sun out. In order to hide that fact, I also added a coordinating valance that just covers the stack of blinds when they are pulled to the tippy top.

(Sorry, bright day = bright spot shots. But, you guys get the drift.)

It’s attached with vintage clothes pins to a clothesline stretched between the shelf brackets on either side of the window. I enjoy seeing this little treasure I picked up years ago every day, but when the sun moves across the yard and it’s possible to open things up, I just pull back a corner and use one of the pins to hold the curtain open.
To learn more about this project click here.

Speaking of clothes pins, although I don’t hang clothing up on a line, I do use clothespins to keep things on the hangers while they dry. So, I used some of the same vintage fabrics from the tub skirt to create a hanging bag to hold my supply.

This handy little bag is attached to a vintage hangar that, again, I have had for years. I think it’s pretty perfect for our laundry space!

The last vintage item I pulled together for the laundry nook is a magnetic message board made from an old scrub board.

This piece had been left in our last home we owned back in Nashville, TN. Rather than tossing it out I had used it for my laundry inspired craft fair displays and it managed to make the trip here to Richmond, VA.

The only other thing I added to the area are a couple of baskets from Target that we already owned and covered storage boxes for the shelves above the hanging bars. They are used to hold seasonal things, like our beach and pool gear. Here is the post about how those came together. As far as the shelves and hanging bars, I just bought wood and dowels, cut them to fit the spaces on either side of the window, painted them glossy white, and hung them up on closet brackets. I added small wooden finials to the ends of the hanging bars just for fun and to give them a more polished, less homemade look.

Some big plans are in the works for the counter and cupboard area directly across from the washer and dryer, but that is for another time. You know, after I tackle the million other things I have on the list!

Where does the time go? I have NO idea. But, here I am again using it up surfing the internet. ;o) Actually, I just wanted to post a sneak peak at what has been keeping me from the blog. (I know you would never guess it, but I have a goal of at least two posts a week and would prefer to post daily. But, I just can’t make that happen, keep the house in order, the Little Guy occupied and projects going along at any kind of pace if I am behind this screen all the time. One day…(insert dreamy music here)).

It seems like I have been on a constant path toward making my kitchen bearable without a complete overhaul. These old chairs just received a lovely paint job to continue to ease that process along.

I hope to have them in place by this weekend. Yeah! I will also be posting more about how the kitchen originally looked, and how I am trying to make what we got work for us right now.

This guy was a bargain buy at the local Salvation Army and as soon as I can get him whipped into shape he will be nestled in between the two smaller windows in our dining room to serve as a bar.

Right now I am working on creating cabinet doors from the old drawer fronts, along with cleaning up the innards, so to speak. I only spent about 30 minutes working on him yesterday and he is almost unrecognizable, but in a good way. I think (and hope!) that I can do everything I want to do with this piece of furniture and not spend any money on lumber. So far, I have only bought some stain, spray paint and spray acrylic for the top coating. I am in this thing for less than $75.00 bucks! Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

On top of these revamping projects I have also been cooking up a storm and reworking some containers to serve other, more decorative purposes around this place. I can’t wait to share more soon, so I better get moving. Only about 45 minutes left of the Little Guy’s nap time! Should have enough time to demo something else, right?

For those of you wondering how long it takes to complete typical DIY work around your home, please read no further. Move on now, nothing to see here. …I have given up on estimating the timeline of a project and have decided just to go with the flow. Once you add a kid in the mix, it’s all downhill from there. Sorry to say, but my one to two week fix for the dining room in our 1992 Colonial has taken well over 2 months and has yet to be completed. Since things are taking sooooo long, I thought I would share what I have done so far. Because, it really is just some of the final finishes that are lacking.

Let’s start with the before shots:

This shot shows us making do with our old furniture, decor and the shears and shades that the previous owners left in place.

It’s hard to tell, but the wallpaper in this room was not only very dark green, but it also had a pattern like crushed leather. It looked a lot like an old style ink blotter for a desktop. At least that’s what we think the look was that they were going for. Unfortunately, we were not “going for” the gentlemen’s library feel for our dining space.

This shot of the fireplace shows the trim work that appears to be an after thought. It’s as though they just forgot about adding a mantle or something? The previous owners gifted us the gold mirror. mmmmm….

Here is the front wall of windows, a shot that we have posted before, showing our curtain fabric choices. There is also another mirror that a relative gifted us many years ago. This one is gold too, but with an antiqued wash. Still not exactly our cup of tea.

As you may or may not remember, the first two big decisions we had to make for this space were paint colors and curtain fabric. It took four samples from the home improvement store and four more mixed in baby food jars to get the right shade for the walls. I ended up using the French Grey color chip that I found at Home depot, but mixed at Lowe’s with Valspar Eggshell finish paint, on the bottom portion of the walls. I had a quart of the same color mixed with a high gloss paint for the chair rail and the trim around the floor just for a little contrast.

Unfortunately the Antique Silver color was two muddy once I put it up on the walls and just did not have enough of a hint of blue for my taste. So, I mixed it with the French Grey until I had just the right shade and had it color matched at Lowe’s. I also wanted the upper walls to be darker than what the Antique Silver offered up against the deep blue grey of the bottom portion of the walls. After getting the wall color completed I finished out the crown molding, window and door trim with glossy white Valspar paint.

We have not had many sunny days lately (or at least not when the sun comes around to this side of the house), so I have not been able to score a really good shot of the paint color to share. Oh well…

As you can see from the wide room shot above, we decided to go with the Bird and Vine tablecloths from Dwell Studio for Target for our curtains. After carefully cutting them in half, I sewed up the edge and then put a 1.5 inch hem in the top for some stability and then hemmed the bottoms to length for each window. At $21.99 a pop, I would say these were a pretty cost conscious solution for the curtain panels.

I also added more substantial wooden curtain rods with simple finials painted out in the same glossy white as the crown molding. This piece of the project took a bit longer than expected because I ended up building my own rod system from the trim pieces you can purchase individually at Lowe’s and Home Depot. Instead of buying the already finished curtain systems I opted for this more cost effective way to get exactly the size I wanted for a “high and wide” mounting. Even though it was a pain to paint all these pieces I did save about a third of what I would have spent on the prefinished items. I also found that many of the rods in the home improvement stores are either really bulky and large or kind of small and wimpy. The Allen & Roth line at Lowe’s is quite nice, but their white pieces are actually sort of more ecru and looked dirty next to the glossy white of the other trim in the room.

And, although I prefer bamboo shades to wooden blinds I decided to go with the latter. They are still not my favorite, but I figured they will stay with the house if we move and this home calls for a plantation blind or shutter look more than the that of bamboo shades. Again, not my favorite, but I think the windows came out just fine anyway.

We decided to paint out the trim around the fireplace the same color as the crown molding. It actually makes the grey streaks running through the marble look much better. The surround also looks slightly less out of place or as an after thought. My ideal fix for this wall would be to pull all the trim down from around the marble and use small glass tiles with a bit of shimmer from floor to ceiling just on this one angled wall. I think that would be such a nice focal point for the room. That is a far off in the future project, though, and we are quite happy with the paint job for now. As soon as possible I will be spraying the gold trim piece, along with the rest of the gas insert surround, a mat black to further spruce up the fireplace area.

Another little project I have been wanting to tackle for years now was to paint the antiqued gold mirror white. The color was never quite right and it is a bit ornate for our tastes, so we figured a nice coat of glossy white paint (same as the trim in the room) would help tone it down and play a little more nicely with the rest of the space.

NOW, for the elephant, or two, in the room.

This chandelier actually evoked hysterical laughter from The Mister and I when we were first looking at this home. Granted, the previous owners had filled the space with big, bulky, dark wood period pieces, but this light always seemed over the top to us. I have always looked at it as to large for the room, but I discovered I may be off in my thinking after a recent visit to a local decorator’s outlet. I was told that the chandelier should meet the measurements of the room size, not the table below it. Oops. I was thinking the opposite, and now I realize that I think it’s just my general dislike for the shiny, brass that keeps me from accepting this guy as the right fit for the room. I have considered spraying it out, but I believe it is a nice and probably costly piece of brass. So, I think I may replace it with something more our taste, but leave it in the attic in case future owners want to restore this room to it’s former gentlemen’s library glory. BTW (sorry Kelli)- It’s hard to tell from this picture, but this thing is nearly 30 inches across. It’s HUGE!!!

The other issue is the table. It is only a dinette size and was our extra game table at our last place. I have dreams of relocating it to our spare bedroom upstairs that plays double duty as my craft space. I think it will be the perfect size table for all my sewing and crafting needs. In the meantime I have this crazy idea that I am going to craft my own table from plywood and paint it out white. That way I can get the exact size I want and I don’t have to worry about matching the wood tones to anything else I put in here (something I gave up on long ago after acquiring the Danish made rosewood hutch). I did finally settle on some simple chairs that are pretty comfy, plus I figured I could slipcover them for different looks if I want to in the future. They are the bentwood modern stacking chairs from Target in the espresso finish. Not only did these come in sets of two, but I was able to purchase them at a price cut for $59.99 a set. WHOOHOO for the budget!

Hopefully, we will be able to stop playing “which of these things is not like the others” soon and take this room DIY completely off the list. Stay tuned for the latest project I created for myself involving a piece of furniture to take up that empty space below the newly painted mirror. I’m super excited about this one and I think it will really make the whole space!

Yep, the wallpaper steamer didn’t work to my benefit. Actually, I take that back. It worked so well that it took down the wallpaper, the paint behind it and the top layer of the drywall within about 15 seconds. I stopped after destroying one section of wall (you can see part of it in the far left of the second photo above. Despite the really bad damage taking down the wallpaper caused I have been able to patch these spots with drywall compound, sand them down and cover everything with a couple of coats of oil-based, odorless Kilz primer. It’s already looking like a new place and I am chomping at the bit to get the final colors up on the walls. I think one more coat of primer is warranted to be sure that lovely border stays hidden forever and then I will be on to round two of painting. Seems like this one week wallpaper removal and painting project has taken on a life of its own and wants to grow into a month long endeavor. I have been slightly depressed about the length of time this has taken, but I have learned some lessons for future redecorating projects for other wallpapered rooms in my home. I think I will skip the removal and go straight for the heavy duty primer. I have always been told painting over wallpaper can be disastrous, but in this case I think I would have saved about two weeks time and I still would have had a nice looking paint job. Oh well, you live, you learn, right?

Now, for my next big decisions…paint color and curtains. I had been planning some light shades of blue gray to play off the darker shades of blue gray I was going to paint in the adjoining formal living room. However, the dining room is almost twice as big as the living room and it gets a LOT more light. Plus, the furniture in that room is all blue (I don’t know what I was thinking!). So, I have decided to flip my plans and use the darker colors in the larger space. I want the rooms throughout our home to glide seamlessly into each other with pops of color here and there, but I don’t want just a neutral white or beige background. Although I like that look, I really want to have some color on the walls. Over the years I have found that I lean toward shades of blue, green and gray with all different shades of stained wood thrown in the mix. So, I am sticking with this color pallet throughout the house. I also love a hit of bright red once in a while and that will definitely show up here and there as well. Right now, though I need to get two colors picked out for the dining room because I hope to have them on the walls before the end of the week. Here are the shades I am considering right now…(at least until the next trip to Lowe’s or Home Depot!):

These are from Lowe’s Valspar line and they are also both National Historic Trust colors. They are definitely more blue/turquoise than gray.

Set #2 – Antique Silver & French Grey

These are from Home Depot’s Glidden line and have a little less turquoise in them. They also both have more of a gray look to them when holding them up in the room. Go figure!?!

What do you guys think? Of course the lighter color would be above the chair rail and the darker color below. Oh yeah, and I am planning to paint the chair rail along with the bottom color so it sort of fades away. I love the moldings in our home, but I’m not wild about this chair rail. The rest of the trim and moldings in the room will be high gloss white.

I would love to hear your opinion, and I know some of you definitely have one! So, let it rip…

As I had mentioned in my novel long post regarding the nursery makeover I planned to share how I created the wall treatment. I bet most of you other DIYer’s out there figured it all out by now, but I still wanted to post a sort of tutorial on the topic. Like I said in the last nursery post I had very little time and almost no budget to make a big impact in this space. You may call it “Pregnancy Brain”, but the Little Guy’s arrival date was fast approaching and I simply could not think of anything very exciting to do. I finally got a flash of an idea while in an office supply store and decided I could make a couple of gallons of paint go a long way. Hopefully, through infancy and into early childhood with a not-to-cutesy paint treatment for the walls. I knew I was going to stick with the brown and blue color scheme since it was still popular enough that I could easily find other accessories to fill out the room. With my tight deadline that was key. Since the room is fairly small I chose to make horizontal bands around the space to make it feel larger. Also, in order to help hide the wrath of a toddler I also used the darkest color along the bottom (ha! I am a genius!) ;o] So, here is how the plan played out….

First I measured the height of the bands and while using a level I lightly marked them with a pencil. The walls were already white, but I had a few marks and holes to fill from the previous resident, so I ended up painting the upper portion a nice bright white to freshen everything up.

In order to make my color transitions work from band to band I had to tape off and paint the center portion next. I used good old blue painter’s tape for this task. Then I collected my bounty from the office supply store for the next step.

Yep, that’s right, stickers! I used reinforcement rings, small and medium multiuse (pricing) dots and CD labels. For the top of the center blue band I wanted a smaller, more delicate pattern, so I used small pricing dots and reinforcement rings as seen below:

I placed them just below the painter’s tape line that separated the center band from the upper white band. In an attempt to try to keep the final coat of paint from seeping under the stickers and the painter’s tape I brushed on a basic gel medium, which is clear and helps to seal the edges. Then I rolled on two coats of BEHR Premium Plus in High Noon (color matched from a Valspar card) with an Eggshell finish.

Since I was working on this in the dead of summer and the heat was almost unbearable the paint dried VERY quickly. That was great for the timeline and I was able to pull the painter’s tape and stickers off pretty quickly in order to get to the next step of the process….the bottom band.

As you can see from the photo above I used the bottom of the blue band as a guide in placing the CD label rings along with the larger pricing dots. After that I added painter’s tape to make a clean line above this row of larger circle stickers and on the baseboard trim. Nothing like easy clean-up, right? Then I rolled on three coats of BEHR Premium Plus in Butternut Wood with an Eggshell finish. Even though I was buying BEHR paint, from a BEHR color card the lady in the paint department was unable to get the color matched. So, she ended up having to use the new BEHR paint with primer, which she sold to me for the regular price. Sah-weet! (The funny thing is I found the paint with primer to be thinner than the regular BEHR paint and it still took three coats to get good coverage. So, I am not sure about the added benefit here. I may have to try that paint out again in the future before I make a final decision on that one.)

Just a note about these larger stickers: I stuck them to the leg of my pants prior to sticking them on the wall because the smaller stickers I used above left a bit of sticky residue when I removed them. I just wanted to avoid having large gray (dirty looking) circles and dots in the future because of dust, etc. Also, the gel medium made them pucker, so I had to just paint over the stickers very delicately to prevent seepage as much as possible.

Again, it was hot, the windows and doors were wide open, and the paint dried very quickly. So, I was able to move on to peeling all those stickers off pretty soon after painting. Even with all my efforts to keep the final coats of paint from seeping under the stickers and tape I still had some touch-ups to do. Next time, instead of relying on a gel medium, I plan to just paint over the barrier with whatever color is underneath. That way the seepage won’t show later. Lesson learned.

After adding a nice dark, chocolate brown (BEHR Premium Plus in Dried Leaf with a high gloss finish) to the baseboard trim and a fresh coat of white (BEHR Premium Plus in high gloss bright white) to the door and window moldings this is how it looked:

Of course I was pretty excited at how it turned out and hope that this simple paint treatment keeps the Little Guy happy for a long time.

Or, at least until I decide I want to do something new to his space. Who knows!?!

Kitsch Krafts

PS- One last note to those concerned about our health and safety during this process. Yes, I used regular paints rather than the super-eco-friendly no VOC variety, but I did so after speaking with my doctor about my plans. I also read up on doing DIY work while pregnant since I had a million projects to finish at our last home before moving to our new one. I wanted to be absolutely sure I was taking the correct precautions to avoid having a kid with an arm growing out of his forehead. As I mentioned above, the windows and door were wide open, plus I used a heavy duty respirator (which I refused to model in my touch-up shot purely out of vanity).